Back to basics

Wow there sure is a lot of stuff in my room to keep me occupied. First of all I have my keyboard and PS3 to spend countless hours on. Then, if I'm in the mood for reading, I can always find a book or two scattered around. And if I don't feel like doing any of those I can always hop behind my PC which gives me an unlimited amount of things to do. It's no surprise that everyone spends so much time behind a computer nowadays. I can listen to music with Windows Media Player, or write a nice article in a text-editor and, if all else fails, there is always the magnificent thing known as the internet, through which you are reading this very article now. What on Earth would I do if all of those possibilities were taken away from me? Boredom is the first thing that comes to mind but that is actualy not what happens.

About three weeks ago I went on vacation with the rest of the family. One weekend to spend together on a bungalowpark on the island of Texel, which is the largest island in The Netherlands (I'll post a map in a later article for those interested). When going on vacation, no matter for how long, I always conciously decide to leave any technology behind. I wouldn't think about taking my laptop for example as that destroys the idea of vacation for me. When packing I decided to take something else with me, namely a notebook and a pen. Contrary to what you might think this was not for writing. Instead I planned on picking up a hobby from way back in my youth. A hobby I was keen to get back into. Drawing.

I used to draw all kinds of things when I was little. Pokemon, Thunderbirds or even basic things such as numbers. Because I didn't have any technology at my disposal I spent my time drawing my very own stories for Digimon or Pokemon, alone or with friends. Unfortunatley I never got far with any of my stories. When I got older I started drawing less and less until finally I was only drawing on very rare occasions. It was the fear of not being able to draw anymore that stopped my from going back to it. If I were to draw again it would surely end in disaster.

A year ago I finally made a drawing again, now in a completely different style than I was used to, and it turned out great. Even though I was very excited to continue drawing I didn't do so eventually. Can't really tell why either. On Texel, where I had no technology around to distract me, I picked up drawing again. I started drawing a chocobo from the FFX strategy guide which I had also brought with me. The results can be seen below. I think it turned out brilliantly and am really pleased with it. Proud of it even. Not only did I draw something really cool myself I also got the other kids into drawing. Sometimes we would sit at the table, 4 of us drawing for hours. It was great fun and I hope they enjoyed it was much as I did.

All in all I hope I'll continue drawing this time around. A drawing such as this one takes me about 6 hours to complete, however. And it's not always tempting to start drawing when the chances of failure are rather big. Given the things I've learned over the last years though, this shouldn't stop me. After all, if I have to go through 20 wasted drawings to get one that looks as good as my chocobo I would be happy to. I hope the other kids feel the same way.